U.S. Women's Open again will put golfers to toughest of tests

Golf

Posted: Thursday, July 01, 2004

By Associated Press

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass. - There is a quiet charm to this U.S. Women's Open, starting with small roads winding through tiny New England towns that lead to Orchards Golf Club, a course built for a woman and owned by female-only Mount Holyoke College.

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The clubhouse is an understated, three-story Colonial. The practice green is no bigger than a two-car garage.

It feels like a cozy reunion of 156 players on a classic course.

Only when they set foot on the Donald Ross design do they get a rude reminder what is at stake. The Women's Open is the toughest test they face all year, and this is no exception.

"It closes down the opportunity for people to win," Beth Daniel said Wednesday. "There are very few players who can win this tournament on this golf course."

That wasn't the case last year at Pumpkin Ridge in Oregon, where the longest Women's Open course in history at 6,550 yards played like one of the shortest because of crusty, dry conditions that made fairways as firm as greens.

That opened up the Open to just about every variety of game, and the winner - Hilary Lunke -emerged from a three-way playoff despite having to use metal woods to reach some of the par 4s.

Now, even the long hitters have their work cut out for them.

Orchards is 6,473 yards and plays even longer because of the heavy New England air, moist grass, gentle bends in the tree-lined fairways and elevated greens that must be carried to certain spots.

"The course plays every bit to its yardage," Daniel said. "And that narrows the field."

Daniel got a taste of that during her final nine holes of practice with Meg Mallon, Liselotte Neumann and 17-year-old Paula Creamer. All of them hammered drives on the 16th, a par 4 that measures 439 yards. All of them reached for fairway metals, and all of them barely cleared a creek in front of the green.

The closing hole is no bargain at 412 yards. Lorena Ochoa had to rip a 3-wood just to give herself a birdie putt.

"The long hitters should have more of an advantage," Mallon said. "But it's just like any other Open, too. You have to putt well. And around the greens requires a lot of creativity."

The most prestigious tournament in women's golf, $560,000 of the $3.1 million purse going to winner, gets under way today with some story lines that have become typical at the Women's Open.

Annika Sorenstam is trying to win her second major in three weeks after a relatively easy time at the LPGA Championship. Kraft Nabisco champion Grace Park also is going after her second major of the year, while Juli Inkster, Karrie Webb and Se Ri Pak also are expected to contend.

"This is the biggest tournament we have, and it would mean a lot," said Sorenstam, who hasn't won the Open in eight years and wasted a great chance last year by making a bogey-6 on the final hole to finish one shot out of the playoff.

A record 16 teenagers are in the field, two more than last year at Pumpkin Ridge.